Windows 10: moved non-boot drive to different system, now System Volume Information is not shown, and...

Recently had a C: hard drive crash, and a external drive is no longer recognized when I try and do a system restore with that drive. drivsystem restore answer pointed to a problem of system volume in root directory being read-onlygot this screen:ugh, did a paint drawing, of steps, wouldn't paste. quick list of steps I tookg:\system volume properties screenUNABLE TO DISPLAY CURRENT OWNERTried to change owner to system with full accesserror applying security, access denied

:)

 

Move folder from external drive "System Volume Information"

I ACCIDENTALLY (I own my mistake) moved a large folder (My Data) from "E:\" into the "E:\

System Volume Information\." where "E:\" is my local external hard drive. To try to undo this, I simple try (Logged in as Administrator)

>move "E:\System Volume Information\My Data" E:\."

but I receive the error "Access is denied.". I try

>icacls "C:\system volume information" /grant Administrator:F

>icacls "C:\system volume information" /grant Administrator:F /t.

These command executes and I retry the "move" command again:

>move "E:\System Volume Information\My Data\." E:\."

but I get the "Access is denied" error again. How can I undo my mistake of moving "E:\My Data" into the "E:\System Volume Information"?

(ie.

>move "E:\System Volume Information\My Data\." E:\."

).

Thank you for your assistance!

 

System Volume Information contains redundant historical "System Volume Information" files using 80% of my disk

Hi,

There are different options available in the Windows 10 operating system that allow you to manage the disk drives on your computer. This includes formatting disk drives or cleaning up junk files.
The system volume information folder contains the system restore point entries,
data used by the content indexing service databases that speed up your file searches, the volume shadow copy service for backups, and the distributed link tracking service databases used to repair shortcuts and links.

Usually, it is not recommended to delete the entries from the System volume information since Windows needs this files. For us to resolve your concern, kindly attempt the steps below to shrink the size of the System Volume Information
folder:

• Press the Windows key + x to open the Quick link menu and from the list select
  Control panel.
• Select System and Security and then from the options presented choose
  System.
• On the left had the panel of the System information window, select the option
  System protection.
• Once you have the System properties window open, select the
  System protection tab and then click on the button labeled configure.
• You can now control how much disk space Windows uses for System Restore points.

Once you complete the steps you can now attempt to delete the folder and check if this improves the storage space you have on the disk drives.

We look forward to your response once you complete the steps.

 

Remove System Volume information folder from external drive

I have currently found out that System Volume information folder on my external HDD takes around 124GB of space. Hence I decided to delete it to free up some additional space. But for now everything what I have tried did not succeeded.

IMPORTANT:

• External hard drive has 1TB capacity and was previously used for backups and creating restore images (not anymore).
  
• It's connected via USB 3.0 port.
  
• System protected files are displayed.
  
• All operations are performed on the clean install of Windows 10 Pro x64.
  
• Formatted in NTFS
  
• I only have one 1TB drive so moving files to another drive will not be an option.
  

So, what I have tried for now:

All the instructions provided here, meaning:

1. takeown /f "F:\System Volume information" /a /r /d y
   
2. icacls "F:\System Volume information" /t /c /grant administrators:F System:F everyone:F
   ("Are you sure?") y
   
3. rd /s /q "F:\System Volume information"
   

This only helped me to delete one of the folders with a bunch of .db files in System Volume information folder. And I get Access denied as previously.

What I also thought of is to create a separate partition on this drive and move all the files there then format the partition with System Volume information and merge partitions back. This did not work quite well as creating new partition also created a System Volume information folder. And it took quite a while to do the partitioning.

I have gone though following posts:

How to delete "System Volume Information" folder from external drives?

How to delete a folder from external drives if names are too long (like System Volume Information/content...)?

Any suggestions guys?

NOTICE: I don't want to use third party software like Unlocker, Eraser or anything similar to these two. There should be a legit way to get rid of the files in Windows without third party software.